Unique Ideas To Decorate With Collections | Budget-Friendly Decor Tips

Are you a collector and a pack rat and a medically diagnosed hoarder and you have a lot of cute stuff but you don't know how to display it? Well lucky for you I have 10 fun cool creative ideas that you can use to turn your collections into very cute decor around your house. Welcome to Laugh Cry DIY. I am Katie and I too am a collector of things. I collect vintage matchbooks, I collect vintage glassware, I collect vintage candelabras, and while I love collecting I don't believe in having collections that are not being seen, loved, or used in your house. And lately I have had a few subscribers ask me what to do with beloved items they have. Maybe you have your own collections, maybe you inherited some cool stuff, maybe you moved in with somebody and now need to deal with their collection. Fortunately there are some very fun ways to bring those collections to life, incorporate them into your existing decor, and honestly give them the love they deserve. So today we're talking about 10 cool ideas from very simple, budget-friendly, to very unique, and probably unthought of. So my little pack rats, let's get into it. Starting with number one, which is frames. This is your most simple, your most basic, and there are plenty of ways you can do this. For example, I love how they did that here with these beautiful antique spoons. I also liked that they add a colored backdrop to make it feel a little more like an intentional art piece, and this works really well especially if you have a very large oversized frame. Whether you frame them in one big giant frame or a bunch of small ones, adding those frames just makes it feel that much more fancy and elegant and kind of gallery-esque. I also love framing items that you would not think to usually frame. For example, here we have a beautiful collection of vintage brooches, which would normally be stuck in a drawer. However, this is a great way to bring them to life, and I can totally imagine something like this in a beautiful dressing area or vanity area. I also love things like this that are very easy to access so that as you collect more, you can easily pin them in and you don't have to look for more storage space for them. Now when we think about collections, we tend to think about like actual objects, teaspoons, cups, whatever, but another thing I think is really cool to do is frame sentimental items. I love this example of framing a bunch of sentimental notes. We all collect things like this. They live in shoe boxes. They get forgotten, but turning something like this into a really beautiful gallery wall is very special and unique. You can also use this same idea in your kitchen if you want to frame handwritten family recipes. I think it's so cool to do. Now that said, of course, sometimes we have much larger objects that we collect, and I still think not just hanging them up but actually framing them is a really good idea. For example, I love how they mounted these antique plates on the wall, but I like that mounting them makes them feel that much more special and that much more unique. The same goes for this awesome wall of vintage cameras. I really love 3D objects as wall art, and this is a great excuse to display really beloved items just like this. Of course, you can thrift frames, you can create frames, you can paint frames around objects on the wall. I also think this is a great way to use kind of dead spaces in your house. If you have like maybe a weird half wall or maybe a boring corner, creating a gallery wall of your collection is a cool way to fill that in in a kind of unexpected way. Of course, maybe frames are too basic and boring for you. Maybe you don't have wall space, in which case one of the coolest, most unexpected ways that you can display something is in a gumball machine. If you have objects that can be corralled in some sort of vase or vessel, you can and should display them in a gumball machine. I mean, look at this gorgeous antique gumball machine filled with matchbooks. That is one of the most clever and interesting ways I've seen to display matchbooks. It's equally whimsical and very artful. The same goes for this gumball machine, which is holding spools of thread. I love the silhouette. I love the colors. I love that it almost does look like candy, but it's not. You can also use these to display seasonal collections. For example, here they've used a gumball machine to display these kind of Christmas ornaments, which I think is so clever and so unique. And whether that's something you kept year-round or swapped out for other items, it's just that much more interesting. And if you've watched the channel before, you know I adore whimsy. I want more whimsy in our lives and our homes. And I will say both when I'm thrifting and when I'm shopping on Facebook Marketplace, I see vintage gumball machines all the time, and I often wish I had a use for them. And lucky for us guys, we do. Of course, if that is a little too whimsical for you, and that is understandable, one great way to display decor is to make it actually functional. And for that reason, I'm a big fan of turning collections into trays. Trays are a multi-use decor tool. You can put them on a bookshelf, on a side table, on a vanity, on a coffee table. And why not make them do double duty by displaying your collection? For example, here they've turned a collection of cassette tapes into a cool tray. This is so easy to do by simply framing them. It's totally sentimental, and these would probably be sitting in a box in a closet if they weren't brought to life like this. You can do this with tapes, CDs, ticket stubs, or postcards. Here they decoupaged some vintage postcards onto this tray, which totally fits the kind of funky vintage aesthetic. And I think it's so much more fun to have these on this tray as opposed to just living on your fridge. Again, that's very easy to do with either Mod Podge or a simple frame. You can also create a tray with resin. Here's a great example of turning a collection of seashells into this beautiful tray. I also love the add of the handles on the sides just to make it that much more fancy. Obviously, you don't want to put anything in resin that you want to access again, but it is a really cool thing to do. I will say on this very channel, I preserved my wedding flowers in little coasters, but that was a perfect sentimental way for me to keep those, and it really brings me joy to see them. But I will link my episode below if you're interested. Now, sometimes when you have a collection, you want to display it, but you also want to be able to access it. And whether it's framed or stuck inside of a tray, you can't do that. In which case, one really cool, really simple way to display things is using a cloche. A cloche is a great vintage object. It's the kind of display where you have a little top that comes off and goes back on. And I love that these are another really kind of glamorous and sophisticated way to display something, no matter how fancy or simple it is. For example, I love this, where they use a cloche to display some beloved books. This is a great idea for any antique books or books you have signed, or especially sentimental books that you just adore and love. Here's another really cool example of how they used a cloche to display pocket watches. These come in all sorts of sizes, so you can display small and large things. I also love this cute little tea set that they displayed in a cloche. That would be very adorable in a little girl's room. Here's another very creative example. I love how they displayed these paint brushes. It turns a very everyday object into a sort of gallery piece. And I will say, if you're not a whimsical person, maybe you are a little bit more of a romantic person. And so anything displayed in a cloche, even a table full of different cloches displaying different things, it makes it feel that much more fancy. And I think it adds a beautiful kind of respect to those objects. And I will say, I do find those cloches in thrift stores. You can always break those apart, throw that stuff out, and put in whatever you want. So I'm telling you, collections, stored in cloches, is the next big thing. You heard it here first. However, that said, I know that might feel a little frou-frou to some people. And maybe you have a smaller space, or you can't use a lot of tabletop real estate to display things. In which case, turning things you collect into a very functional piece is another great way to honor them. Specifically, if you turn them into clocks. Here are some very cool examples of that. Here they've turned a collection of watch faces into a clock, which is very meta and very clever, but makes perfect sense and is very practical. Here's another similar example. However, they've also added a bunch of jewelry. I see some brooches, maybe some rings. This is a great way to repurpose any costume jewelry you might have inherited. You could also do this with crystals, with stones, with little toys. And this next one I'm going to show you is so cool. Here you can see they have turned a vintage doily into a clock. This is so unique, so beautiful. It is truly an art piece on its own. And what I love about this is that turning anything into a clock is a very simple DIY project. They do sell those very simple little clock kits. Very, very inexpensive. And if you want to be very lazy, you can easily thrift a clock. There are tons of clocks at the thrift store. And you can either adjust the frame or adjust the face. And it's very practical, so you kind of get to interact with these items more. Guys, if I'm honest, that clock will never leave my brain. It is so cool, and I hope you guys feel as inspired by that as I do. Anyways, moving on. Now, one thing I really love in decor, in DIY, in upcycling is combining elements you already have at home together in cool or unexpected ways. And one thing I really love is people reusing candelabras in creative ways. And when it comes to displaying collections, I have seen some really gorgeous examples of this. One of them is displaying jewelry. As you can see here, this is such a beautiful, elegant way to do this. And I think it's especially great to display jewelry that you don't use often. Again, many of us have inherited items from relatives. Maybe that's a grandmother or an aunt. And maybe that jewelry isn't perfectly your style, but you still want to honor it. Displaying it in such a beautiful way is a perfect way to do that. Candelabras can also be a great way to hold things. For example, I love how they've repurposed this one here to hold these crystal spheres. Here's another cool example of using the candelabra to display tea cups. Obviously they've turned this into a beautiful little succulent garden, but I think that's an adorable idea, especially if you have a tea party. And one thing I really like about candelabras is that wherever you display them, they add nice height. So if you're styling a bookshelf or something like that, and you're even surrounding it with other elements, just adding that height adds more visual interest and makes it that much prettier. And if you're worried about something like that maybe tipping over, you can use museum wax to stabilize both the base and the objects on the candelabra. Pro tip. Also, I know the examples I'm showing tend to show kind of more feminine objects, but I've also seen cool examples of using candelabras to display vintage pool balls or racquetballs. So I think they are more versatile than we realize. So get your collectibles on your candelabras. All right, next. Let's talk about a more kind of practical, common way to display things. And that is shelves. And usually when we think of shelves, we think of bookshelves or built-ins or even wall shelves. But there are some very cool, very creative ways to use shelving to display your collections. And that is by displaying them on really tiny shelves. Here are some cool examples of that. Here they have a really beautiful globe collection that they are displaying on these adorable little floating bookshelves. And I really like these because they kind of do double duty of displaying two different types of things. But putting them on the wall makes them feel a little bit more like a kind of modern art installation. Here's another cool example of using small corbels to display this pottery. Not only are these wall shelves smaller and kind of easier to install, I love the beautiful contrast between the red lacquer and the beautiful blue and white pottery. This is another cool way to consider the way that the shelving itself can also be a part of the installation, which I think is something a lot of people don't think about because they just think about the shelves as very practical, tactical tools to display something. That said, something cool is that you don't always have to do like proper shelves. For example, here's a great vinyl wall they did. And those little quote shelves are actually dresser handles from Ikea put up with command strips. And I will say for vinyl specifically, using napkin holders is a great way to do that. There are even a few versions of Ikea napkin holders that are really easy to screw or nail into the wall, and you can tuck your vinyl into those. But I like this because again, it even adds a little bit of a sculptural element to the display, which enhances the whole thing overall. I will also say another favorite hack for me for displaying small things is using bookends. Whether you have metal ones or simple wood ones, you can easily use those as little display shelves and it's super budget friendly and customizable if you want to paint them. So when you're thinking of shelves, think of something that is smaller and cuter. All right, moving on. Now, while I love when things are like displayed beautifully on a wall, I also really think it's cool to display objects in kind of unexpected ways where you wouldn't realize that's what that was. Which is why one really cool thing you can do with your collection is turn it into a lamp. And there are a few ways to do this. You can use the lampshade as its own canvas. Here's a beautiful example of putting vintage brooches on a lampshade. This is such a subtle but beautiful and efficient way to display these, and it adds such a nice unexpected texture. Here's another really cool lampshade hack. This is made completely with vintage rulers, which is so cool and unusual. It's pretty simple to DIY, but again, so unexpected. And here's another fave. This is a lampshade made with vintage slides, which does double duty of both featuring the slides and creating a really beautiful kind of diffused light effect. The other way you can do this is by getting a base that you can fill with things. This is similar to the gumball machine, but I love how they filled this base with Legos. It's a fun pop of color, and again, it's not something you would notice off the bat. It's something you'd kind of do a double take when you walked by. And you could fill that with so many things, whether that's shells, again, vintage ornaments, sand from places you've traveled. Now, I know not everybody wants to upcycle with their collection, but I do think that a lot of items are genuinely just sitting in dust, in boxes, in garages, very unloved, very unseen, and I think this is a very honorable way to reuse them. So, lamp it up if you can. Now, similarly, this next idea is another great way to use up your collection in a cool, creative, very personalized way, and that is by turning it into a mirror. If you have a lot of small objects, using them as a frame for a mirror is a brilliant way to upcycle them, and I have seen quite a few cool versions of this. Here is this epic frame made from vintage teacups, which is probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen vintage teacups used for. Again, this is something that would almost make you do a double take, but the size and the scale and even the texture is so cool. Similarly, this is all made from empty Bic lighters, but you would not realize that at first glance, which I really like. Similarly, I really adore this cute little race car mirror. This is perfect for a kid's room, whether you have Legos, cars, or toys, or dice, or game pieces. It's such an easy way to incorporate it into the design and a great way to make something in the room that much cuter. And honestly, guys, there are a ton of examples of this from, again, brooches around mirrors, matchbooks around mirrors, vintage domino pieces. I also love that this is something you can do with a very small little mirror in the corner or a really large full-size mirror, whatever your collection is, whatever your vibe is. And now, my friends, we've come to our last idea, and this one is very simple. This is for the lazy people. This is for the people who maybe don't have the biggest collection, but just have a few items, and that is turning them into bookends. Here are some great examples. I love these vintage bowling pins used as bookends. You can imagine how gorgeous those would look on a beautiful wood bookcase or on a side console table. I also love that antique items like this just add that much more soul to a room, even if it's something small and simple like these. Similarly, I love these vintage telephones used as bookends. This is an especially good idea for vintage or dead technology you don't use anymore because it does tend to be sizable and a little more hefty. But you can also use kind of everyday objects or objects that are currently in rotation for you. For example, I really love these high heels used as bookends. That would be so charming in a studio apartment and a great way to turn your collections into sort of everyday art. It's a very fun, very flexible way to decorate, and you can move that little book stack everywhere from, like I said, your side table to your coffee table to your bookshelf. So lots of fun ways to do it. And that, my dears, is today's roundup. I'm not gonna lie, I've even given myself some ideas that I will probably incorporate soon throughout the house. Also, if you have cool or creative ways that you have repurposed inherited items or other collections, please drop those ideas in the comments. We love to share. We love to inspire our community. And if you're interested in more decor tips and ideas, I will link my playlist below. I do a lot of these videos on a bunch of different topics. And if you guys have an idea for a subject I should cover in a video, please drop that below as well. Until then, I hope you guys enjoy your collections, love your collections, grow your collections, and most importantly, display your collections. Okay, bye!